Why Trump's Rollback Of Obama's Drug Reforms Will Be Catastrophic For Minorities

The Obama administration took significant steps to scale back the war on drugs and reduce incarceration rates, in part by directing federal prosecutors in 2013 to seek the most severe sentences only for "serious, high-level, or violent drug traffickers." Many had hoped that this would usher in an end to the disastrous, decades-long war on drugs, but alas, it will not: On Friday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded Obama's drug reforms, and instead ordered prosecutors to seek the maximum punishment for drug offenders, including mandatory minimum sentences.

"[I]t is a core principle that prosecutors should charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense," Sessions wrote in the memo, which he sent to over 5,000 assistant U.S. Attorneys on Friday. "By definition, the most serious offenses are those that carry the most substantial guidelines sentence, including mandatory minimum sentences." In a speech the day before issuing the memo, Sessions said that "we've got too much complacency about drugs," adding that drug abuse is a "threat to our country."

In essence, Trump and Sessions are doubling down on the war on drugs. And the war on drugs has been nothing short of a disaster for people of color. By the most charitable interpretation, the drug war disproportionately punished black and Latino Americans. By the least charitable interpretation, the drug war is the new Jim Crow — a conscious and knowing attempt to incarcerate people of color.

People of color have suffered far more in the war on drugs than white people, and that's clear even if you don't make any judgements regarding the intention behind federal drug policies. Sessions' decision to reverse Obama's drug reforms marks a sweeping change in federal policy, and it will be absolutely catastrophic for people of color in America. Given the policies they support and the kind of rhetoric they spout, it's not unwarranted to read into Trump and Sessions' motives here.

Trump and Sessions both have sordid record on their treatment of people of color throughout their lives; now, they're pushing a policy that will wreak havoc on those communities. They may resort to many excuses for reversing Obama's drug reforms, but for people of color, it's not hard to see what their intentions are here.